Texas man Palash Pandey reunites with cat after Lyft driver takes off with the pet
A Lyft driver in Texas allegedly took off with a rider’s cat in a bizarre incident that went viral on social media and prompted a massive search effort that ended with the owner and his pet reunited a day later.
Palash Pandey said he noticed his 2-year-old cat named Tux seemed to be feeling under the weather on Saturday so he called a Lyft to bring her to a vet near his home in Austin.
But what started off as a normal vet visit turned into an unimaginable nightmare before Pandey and Tux could even make it into the animal hospital.
Pandey, 23, said he got out of the Lyft vehicle and went around the back to open the back passenger side door to pick up Tux in her carrier when the driver sped away.
“Before I could open the door, the driver started driving,” he wrote in a viral thread on X, formerly Twitter. “I banged on the back and passenger windows and screamed running behind him but he drove off.”
The distraught pet owner said he called and messaged the driver through the app several times with no response.
The Lyft driver responded about two hours later and said he didn’t have the black and white cat, according to Pandey.
“I don’t have anything of yours. There is nothing in the back,” the driver texted in the chat, according to screengrabs obtained by the Washington Post. “She isn’t there sorry.”
Pandey called 911 who transferred him to 311 where he filed a report. He also contacted Lyft support which informed him that they reached out to the driver and that there would be a “standard return fee of $20 for [the driver’s] time and effort” if the driver returned the “item.”
After exhausting all options, Pandey decided to post a plea for help to both X and Reddit. He asked for people’s advice on what to do and publicly called out Lyft in the posts.
“I didn’t expect that people would want to help, but I was desperate and didn’t know what else to do,” he told the Washington Post. “I was really worried.”
His tweet was seen more than 10 million times and hundreds responded with suggestions and calls on Lyft and local news stations to help Pandey find Tux.
“They just jumped in to help,” he said, adding that it restored his faith in humans.
Late Saturday night, Pandey said the Lyft driver called him after he was contacted by Austin police.
The driver claimed he was allergic to cats and would have canceled the ride if he had known Pandey had a cat in the carrier and said he drove off quickly because he was startled, according to the distraught cat owner.
“My drop-off location was a pet hospital, and I was holding a pet carrier, so it’s hard to figure that one out,” Pandey told the newspaper.
He said the driver also said he picked up and dropped off multiple riders after Pandey’s trip to the animal hospital and that none said anything about a cat.
By Sunday — with still no word on Tux and a growing number of people tuning in for any news — Lyft’s CEO David Risher responded.
“The initial response was awful. Since then, we’ve done a lot behind the scenes, but I know we haven’t communicated enough. We’re very focused on this and will keep the community up to date,” he tweeted.
Risher said Lyft sent out alerts with Tux’s photo to all its drivers and riders in the Austin area and also asked social media to not “vilify” the driver.
Pandey also asked his supporters to not dox the driver.
“He’s received unwarranted threats and is just as distraught as we all are,” Risher said of the driver, whose Lyft account was deactivated while the company investigates.
The rideshare company went a further step and deployed a search team to look for Tux.
On Sunday, one of the team members spotted the frightened tuxedo cat hiding beneath a stairwell outside a real estate company’s office, about a mile from the animal hospital. Her carrier was nowhere in sight.
They grabbed her and quickly reunited Tux with Pandey.
“Tux was hungry and scared and covered in fleas, but she was really happy to see me,” Pandey told the Washington Post. “I was just so grateful, I just hugged her and cried.”
After taking her to the vet, Pandey said she received a clean bill of health and shared a selfie holding Tux with a thank you to all that helped and followed along. Lyft said it would cover the vet fees.
“You guys have restored my faith in the community,” he said on X.
Austin police is still investigating the case to learn exactly what happened to little Tux.
“We are actively working with all involved to fully understand the situation — to help prevent it from happening again,” Lyft said. “We’re evaluating our policies to improve support for our community, including in cases like this.”
Pandey said he’s happy to have Tux back, but hopes no other pet owners have to go through what he dealt with.
“She’s been with me 2 ½ years — ever since I found her as a kitten,” he said. “She was stuck on a library terrace at Drexel University [in Philadelphia], where I was going to college. I rescued her that day and we’ve been together ever since.”
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